MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry: Arson, Looting ‘Not Necessarily Violence’

Harris-Perry on 'Burn This B---- Down': Arson, Looting 'Not Necessarily Violence' (NewsBusters)

Next time you're assembling a criminal defense team, remember to forget Melissa Harris-Perry. On her MSNBC show today, MH-P commented on the news that authorities are considering charges against Michael Brown's stepfather Louis Head, who on the night the grand jury declined to indict, jumped on a car and implored the crowd "burn this mother------ down! Burn this b--ch down!" Numerous buildings were thereafter torched. Argued Harris-Perry: "arson and looting . . . are not necessarily violence." She added that those crimes should bear a "legal difference" from violence against "bodies."  

Even if you accept Harris-Perry's premise, so what?  Assault isn't as bad as murder, either.  That doesn't mean you don't prosecute the former, only that the punishment must fit the crime.